Bands 2, 4 and 12 are AT&T's primary LTE bands. Band 17 is the subset of band 12 that AT&T uses. AT&T originally identified its 700 Mhz spectrum as band 17 but now identifies it as both 12 and 17 which allows phones that support either band 12 or band 17 to use it.

Bands 5, 29 and 30 are used in areas where AT&T doesn't own any band 2, 4 or 12 spectrum and to increase capacity and speeds.

AT&T's 3G and non-LTE 4G (UMTS, HSPA and HSPA+) services operate on the 850 and 1900 Mhz bands. AT&T shut down its 2G (GSM, GPRS) service at the begining of 2017.

T-Mobile uses the 1900 Mhz band for GSM (voice) and EDGE (2G) and UMTS (3G) data. It uses the 1700 (AWS) band for UMTS (3G) data rather than 1900 Mhz in some markets.

For LTE, T-Mobile uses bands 2 (1900), 4 (1700), 12 (700 a,b,c), 66 (1700 Mhz) and 71. T-Mobile's primary LTE band is band 4. Band 2 is deployed in former 2G only non-urban areas where T-Mobile doesn't have any band 4 spectrum. In some, maybe all, of these band 2 only LTE markets, 3G is not offered, only 2G and LTE.

In some areas Band 12 is T-Mobiles only band of any kind. To make calls in these areas a phone with VoLTE support is required. There's a map of T-Mobile's band 12 spectrum here. Band 12 is a lower frequency band that provides extended range and improved building penetration compared with bands 4 and 2.

Band 71 (600 Mhz) is T-Mobile's newest band. Band 71 deployment started in the third quarter of 2017. T-Mobile says it will deploy band 71 nationwide, including areas where T-Mobile currently has no coverage. It will take several years to complete band 71 deployment. As of September, 2017, the T-Mobile branded version of the LG V30 is the only phone that supports band 71.

As for Sprint and Verizon, you can pretty much forget about using phones from other operators on either of their networks. With a few exceptions (some Motorola phones, iPhones from the Apple Store and the Nexus and Pixel phones from the Play Store), both operators will only activate phones that they have sold. It's still useful to know which bands Sprint and Verizon use when shopping for phones as older phones nay not support all of the bands currently used by either operator.

Verizon uses 850 Mhz and 1900 Mhz for voice, 1xRTT (2G) and EVDO (3G) data
For LTE, Verizon uses bands 4 (1700c), 5 (850) and 13 (700). Band 13 is Verizon's primary LTE band. Band 4, which Verizon markets as XLTE and band 5, are used to provide increased speed and capacity in urban areas.

To be sure that a phone will work to its fullest or at all with a given carrier you need to know which bands it supports.

For phones made for the US market PhoneScoop.com is my favorite resource for checking specs. It provides a full page of detailed specifications for virtually every US phone model. Supported bands are listed in the Modes section of the specs. Click the + more detail link to see which LTE band numbers are supported. With LTE It's not enough to refer to bands by their approximate frequency (850, 1700, 1900), as multiple incompatible LTE bands can exist in the same frequency ranges. LTE bands can only be positively identified by their LTE band number.

For checking band support for non-US market phones I like PDAdb.net and frequencycheck.com Be sure you are looking at specs for the phone's exact model number rather than its marketing name (Samsung Galaxy i9500 rather than Samsung Galaxy S4), as most phones come in multiple versions supporting different bands.

"Universal" Unlocked phones:
When comparing phones you will quickly discover there are relatively few truly universal unlocked phones that are sold unlocked and work across all operators. Work is a relative term as none of these support all the bands used by all the carriers. Here are the ones I'm aware of that are whitelisted by Sprint and Verizon and support at least the major bands used by all four national carriers:

The question I have is: The internationally available iPhone 6/6+ are listed as being the same as the US Sprint model. Is it possible to buy an unlocked international model 6/6+, and have it work on all 4 US carriers, which it seems capable of supporting?

An iPhone sold as an unlocked phone or for a different opperator can't be activated by Verizon and Sprint because its MEID isn't in the operator's data base. When you buy an iPhone from Apple and tell them you will be using it on Sprint or Verizon they do some magic that adds the phone to the respective opperator's database of permited devices.

I got me a Truphone SIM not long ago, NOT happy that calls go to voice mail after 15 seconds of ring time.

Called CS, they said sure we can change/increase that, then after trying, told me it looks like the system will only allow the 15 seconds, my understanding is: In the past CS could select/change the amount ring time for you, but now can no longer.

I think this 15 second thing came about because of the change Truphone made to incoming calls being free, the 15 sec ring time would increase the number of calls that can't be answered before going to voice mail and result in the Truphone user having call back missed calls.

The real bummer is, I can't put Truphone on my Google Voice account because I don't want my calls to GV going to the Truphone voice mail. I contacted Truphone CS about this a number of times, and there just is no way to increase the ring time.

I thought that would fix the problem so I could use GV, but NO, it does not work, with VM disabled, calls go to a msg stating that the cell phone user you are calling is not available after 15 seconds of ringing.

It seems there is no way around this 15 second ring thing on Truphone.

This is a timely post. My mother is currently on my AT&T family plan. I may switch to Cricket in the near future, so I'd like to transfer her line to a pay-as-you-go GSM service since all she does is make occasional phone calls - no texting or data usage. She is using an unlocked Nokia 6300 tri-band GSM 2G phone, which will work on either AT&T or T-Mobile networks. I've read that T-Mobile is gradually replacing their 2G service with LTE, hence reducing their coverage/footprint for older phones. Therefore I am leaning toward AT&T MVNO providers. Any thoughts?

T-Mobile is replacing base stations so they can deploy LTE on their 1900MHz spectrum, currently used for 2G, 3G and HSPA+. In many rural areas, they are just using the spectrum for 2G and voice. Once the base stations are replaced, they can run all 4 data services at the same time, and hand off calls from one service to another as needed. In rural areas when they only have 2G data service now, they will keep some spectrum for that even after LTE deploys, until there is not enough demand to support it. So, LTE deployment will not just turn off 2G service in rural areas.

Thanks, I wasn't aware that AT&T is planning to phase out its 2G service in a few years. I might as well just go with T-Mobile's pay-as-you-go service for my mom. At least I can still buy a Samsung T199 3G candybar phone for her, which is a T-Mobile prepaid feature phone; it's pretty similar to her Nokia 6300 in functionality. Target sells them for $20. Since she doesn't plan to use data, T-Mobile's voice network (w/roaming) should be plenty sufficient.

All the operators are reallocating 2G spectrum to 3G or 4G as there are fewer 2G customers so there's excess 2G bandwidth. It's just normal network management and shouldn't effect remaining 2G users if done right.

H20 (AT&T) and PTel (T-Mobile) are the bext value GSM pay as you go options currently.

Dennis, thank you for your response. I was going to compare your H2O and Airvoice carrier profiles this evening. Once I switch my own line to Cricket and my mother's line to H2O or Airvoice, I'll probably cut my overall monthly mobile phone service costs by 50%, perhaps even more than that if I decide to go with Cricket's $25 unlimited talk and text plan instead of their $40 plan with 1 GB data. Thanks again for all the work you do in putting this site together.

So if you are in a T-Mobile refarmed area you are better off picking up an ATT SIII device over a T-Mobile? It is really confusing, but you are saying that unless you have the 700 (17) band you most likely will not get ATT LTE in most areas? Will the ATT SII pick up t-mobile LTE? SIII ATT carries the LTE 700 (band 17), 1700/2100 (band 4) MHz

I picked up a Metro F6 and was hoping to use ATT SIM and get LTE of course HSPA + may work better than T-Mobiles and if it does then it may work well for my needs anyway.F6 carries LTE 850 (band 5), 1700/2100 (band 4), 1900 (band 2), 2100 (band 1) MHzAny advice would be appreciated!

I pulled that from Phone Arena? As far as T-Mobile my HSPA+ speeds are pathetic where I live yet LTE speeds are much better! We are refarmed so I don't know if I happen to fall into that category where we are relegated to 2G. Why LTE is possibly the better option if the devices handle the correct frequencies for the the particular service. Why I asked about Band 17I find it interesting that CDMA is trashed and that GSM is the holy grail, except it is not talked about how you need all the right bands supported for either T-Mobile and ATT for the device and the local area you live and you travel to. It is facade, you are still tied to the carrier in so many respects.

So Dennis, I was under the impression the SIII T999 did not come with LTE, but when looking around it seems there is the T-999L that also carries the 700 -1700 LTE Bands. Any reason to stay away from this version? Reason I ask is that this version seems to go for a less than the non LTE version T-999?

Do you think an unlocked T-999L will be the best choice for both T-Mobile and AT&T connectivity? Will be using in LA - SF Bay Area - San Benito and Monterey CountiesSamsung shows GSM: 850/900/1800/1900; UMTS: Band 1(2100), II(1900), IV (1700), V(850); LTE: Band IV(1700), XVII(700)

I am looking to spend $200 or less per device and to replace the Wife's Sprint SIII and my Son's Sprint HTC EVO LTE, so my options are somewhat limited. LTE is not a necessity using AT&T but more so with T-Mobile. I should be pretty well covered for HSPA+ on the AT&T side, correct and 17(700) band is AT&T go to LTE band right? It being T-Mobile device I see no issues either HSPA+ or LTEProblem is knowing what AT&T is using in the areas I mentioned or anywhere for that matter.Thanks for your input Dennis

I don't, but my son needs more than that, LOL........ the Wife loves her SIII and she wants to stay with that platform for at least the interim. I guess I will just pick one up, test it and go from there. Thanks again.

I'm a long-time Page Plus user and have just purchased a VZW 1st Gen Moto X to use with the new PP LTE service (which, having just enrolled, I'm enjoying the new 5/3 speeds rather than the as-launched 3.5/1+ speeds).

Per Phonescoop.com, The 1st. Gen VZW Moto X supports LTE bands 13 (750/Upper 700, for Verizon) as well as band 4 (1700 AWS). Does that mean the phone can also be used with T-mo LTE (you state that "T-Mobile's primary LTE band is band 4"). The phone also handles the following WCDMA (3G / 4G) freqs: 850 Cellular / band 5; 900 band 8; 1900 PCS / band 2; and 2100 IMT / band 1. That would seem to allow interoperability with both T-Mo and ATT (in, for example, Chicago) for 3G+ access (assuming I am correct that WCDMA = UMTS). True/False?

Fantastic write-up, Dennis; thanks! One of the best and most concise I have found on this subject.

Yes, the Verizon Moto X (2013) will work on T-Mobile including LTE. 3G coverage will be a little lacking as it lacks T-Mobile's primary UMTS band: 1700 Mhz. WCDMA is the air-interface technology used in UMTS and is often used as a synonym of UMTS.

Would all 1st gen Moto X function the same on Tmo or a Tmo recarrier (I'm on Simple Mobile)? My impression is that of the GSM models there are three versions: an At&t branded phone, a Tmo branded phone, and the custom phones offered on the motomaker website. Would I correct? I live in an area where LTE is scarce, and don't want to have a lackluster 3g connection. Also, is Simple ok as far as Tmo carriers go? And finally, does a phone being unlocked affect which bands it accesses?

I used to own the T-Mo Moto X version (no branding marks), which was the same as the unlocked GSM model, XT1053. It worked fine on HSPA+ and LTE service. I used Ptel, but you can use any MVNO and T-Mo HSPA+ is the same as T-Mo service. Unlocked does not affect this. I ordered mine through the Moto custom site, but that only affected the appearance. Simple is owned by Am Movil and has no off-network roaming so coverage is limited to the T-Mo native network. CS is offshore, so be patient and prepared to call several times if the first rep can't solve your problem.

Anonymous is correct, XT1053, the T-Mobile and unlocked US model, is the best 1st gen Moto X for T-Mobile. It supportsUTMS (3G) on 850/900/1700/1900/2100 Mhz. T-Mobile uses mainly 1700 with a 1900 overlay in most large urban areas.LTE on bands 2/4/17. T-Mobile uses mainly band 4 with band 2 in former 2G only areas where they don't own any band 4 spectrum. T-Mobile is also just starting to use band 12 LTE which very few current phones support.

Thanks. I'll keep the phone primarily on PagePlus, but I'm hoping for the opportunity to occasionally experiment. I'm in Chicago so when I'm staying put I should be able to use the phone on VZW and its MVNOs for Band 4 LTE and 3G CDMA service; T-Mo and it's MVNOs for Band 4 LTE and 1900 Mhz band UMTS service; and AT&T and its MVNOs for 1900 Mhz band UMTS service.

Hope someone can help. I purchased the Unlocked/Contract free tmobile phone6 from apple.com. I got it, put my H20 wireless sim card in and I cannot change my APN settings. I contacted both Apple and H20. Apple says that it is H20 not allowing me to change carrier settings and they need to provision my account and push the settings to me. H20 said the only way I can change my APN settings is to jailbreak my phone, which Apple said was incorrect info. I see others have purchased the same phone with no issue. Does Airvoice wireless or Cricket allow me to change settings? In my area must be ATT mvno.

Only Apple partner operators can push carrier profiles to iPhones to set APNs for data AND MMS. H2O is not an Apple partner.

If you only want data and don't care about MMS, H2O has a "Smart SIM" that is supposed to configure to data APM but not the MMS APN. You can also send the data-only APN to the phone using http://unlockit.co.nz/.

To be able to setup MMS on AT&T MVNOS like H2O and Airvoice that aren't Apple partners you need to be jail broken and install an APN editing app.

If you want MMS and don't want to jailbreak, AT&T based prepaid carriers that are Apple partners include GoPhone, Cricket, Consumer Cellular, Straight Talk and NET10.

No problem. You can enable hidden bands in your unlocked phone. Try this This is of course a great post. I just gone through this and found useful for my unlocked device http://www.digitdirect.in/2016/09/how-to-enable-4g-lte-on-lg-g3.html

D851 adds support for UTMS on 1700 Mhz which is T-Mobile's main band for 3G and HSPA+ 4G. The D851 will get 3G or 4G in non-LTE, non-refarmed areas where the D850 won't. Unless the price difference is very large, recommend the D851.

hi Dennis, because you sound very knowledgeable regarding the different LTE frequencies AT&T and T-Mobile operates on I was hoping you can help me with my dilemma. I recently purchased a Sony Xperia Z1C (D5503) to replace an AT&T Branded S4. the phones is being used on NET10 service with a AT&T Sim. prior to me switching phones, I did get AT&T LTE service on the S4 however, now that I have my Sony Xperia Z1C (D5503), I am not getting LTE. because of this, I was considering switching to T-Mobile but, I wasn't sure if my Sony Xperia Z1C (D5503) would even work on T-Mobile's LTE network too. would you happen to know if my Sony will or not? better yet, which network would offer the better use of their network for my Sony?

As you can see it lacks support for LTE band 17 which is AT&T's primary LTE band. It does support bands 2, 4 and 5 which are AT&T's secondary LTE bands so you should get LTE in markets where those bands are in use by AT&T.

You might get more consistent LTE on T-Mobile which uses band 4 primarily

I did not know that T-Mobile uses 1700 MHz for 3G. I thought they use 1900 MHz or 2100 MHz like other providers. Thanks for the info. T-Mobile's coverage in the Baltimore and Washington Area is good. There is spotty reception in the rural areas away from the big highways.

My question is regarding the following part in your article, "With LTE It's not enough to refer to bands by their approximate frequency (850, 1700, 1900), as multiple incompatible LTE bands can exist in the same frequency ranges. LTE bands can only be positively identified by their LTE band number."

Is there somewhere where I can find more information regarding this? I'm trying to understand WHY LTE Band 3 (1800MHz) and Band 9 (1800MHz) are not "compatible with each other. I understand that there are some differences in the channel bandwidths and uplink/downlink MHz...

Is that enough to cause a phone compatible with Band 3 to not work with Band 9 (or vice versa)? Or perhaps in SOME cases, it can be compatible (ex. Band 13 (700MHz) and Band 14 (700MHz).

This Wikipedia page lists the the LTE bands and the frequencies involved. Just because band 13 and 14 are adjacent to each other within the same 100 Mhz space doesn't give a band 13 phone band 14 receivers, transmitters, attennas and software.

Carriers have no reason to enable a competitor's bands and each band has to go through a rigorous and expensive FCC test suite so there are costs involved in enabling unneeded bands.

Thank you! I went to a metro pcs store, they told me that is able to work in 4G LTE!.... Then i went to another metro pcs store, there they told me the lenovo A806 only works in HSPA+, i wasn't sure about what they told me! I look in many websites and lots of people says only works in 2G band! Thanks a lot!

I want to buy an unlocked AT&T Galaxy S5 Active and use it with T Mobile instead. I believe its missing the 1700 band for 3g service. How will this affect the functionality of the phone and service? Will it cause me not to have service at all in certain areas? Here are the bandwidths that are shown for the S5 Active ·2G: GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900, 3G: HSDPA 850 / 1900 / 2100l, 4G: LTE 700 / 850 / 1700 / 1800 / 1900 / 2100 / 2600 Would you say this phone would be good to go with TMo or would you recommend sticking with TMo regular S5?

I use an unlocked AT&T LTE phone that doesn't support 1700 3G and the lack of 1700 Mhz 3G is not a big deal in my experience.

Most places where there's 1700 3G there's also 1700 LTE and 1900 3G both of which the phone supports. In a few areas you might only have 2G data where a T-Mobile phone gets 3G. Voice and texting which use 1900 GSM and should be fine everywhere T-Mobile has service.

Hi Dennis, I wanted to buy an international unlocked Samsung Galaxy s5. The seller says that the phone needs to run on both frequencies so if TMobile runs on 1700 and 2100 but the phone is only compatible with 2100, does that mean that the phone will not work? Phone is LTE 800 / 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 / 2100 / 2600

Based on those specs I would not buy the phone. 2100 means LTE band 1 which is not used in the US. T-Mobile's primary LTE band is band 4 and it's primary 3G band is 1700 So the phone will not get LTE on T-Mobole and will only get 3G in rewarmed markets

The T-Mobile version on the Note 4 is N910T. It supports all of T-Mobile's LTE bands (b4, b2 and b12). It has a quad core Snapdragon 905.

There many versions on the Note 4 for different carriers. I don't trust any site that lists LTE bands as 100 Mhz ranges. LTE bands need to be listed by band number as there are multiple band numbers in a single 100 Mhz range.

You are probably looking at the N910C for Europe, Asia and South America. It supports bands 2 and 4 but not 12. Samsung USA won't honor the warranty on non-US models.

BTW, the quad-core Snapdragon in N910T is comparable in performance to the N910C's octa-core Exynos. I would not buy a N910C over an N910T unless it was much cheaper.

The band specs you posted are incomplete because they don't specify which air interfaces (GSM, UMTS, LTE, etc) are supported on each band. It's common for phones to support LTE but not UMTS on band 4 (1700) or to support GSM and UMTS but not LTE on band 2 (1900).

Hello your info and explanations are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. Can u please tell me if the Tmobile info stated directly above (re voice 2g, 3g, LTE) is exactly the same for a phone to fully function on MetroPCS? I've searched and searched and can't find a clear, concise info on any site, so I'm hoping you can help me clarify. I know Metropcs piggybacks on T-Mobiles network, but not sure to what extent they use the same exact bands and/or frequencies for each: 2gvoice, 3G,LTE. I'm trying to find an inexpensive white smartphone, at least 5.5" screen size, with decent internal memory that i can fully use on Metropcs for voice and data, mainly LTE data speeds. It doesn't have to be a well known brand. I've seen several phones on Amazon but not sure if they're compatible. Any info you can offer would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

The Verizon S5 SM-G900V will work on MetroPCS but I don't recommend it. The problem is that it doesn't support MetroPCS/T-Mobile main 3G band 1700 Mhz and only supports one of T-Mobile's three LTE bands you will be stuck with only 2G data more than you need to be.

Get the T-Mobile (SM-G900T) or MetroPCS (SM-G900T1) version of the S5 to get the most out of the T-Mobile network.

Thanks for your quick response. The guy who is selling it says hes using a t-mobile sim card and has had no issues. I have never noticed using 3g on my phone now (a metro LG phone),i have seen the 2g pop up from time to time. Wouldnt i mostly be using the 4GLTE? When would i run into problems?

1) T-Mobile is adding LTE on band 2 to most of its current 2G-only areas which are primarily along highways lightly populated area like i-80 across Nevada and CA-101 amd CA-128 in Northern Calif.

2) 1700 Mhz is T-Mobile's main 3G band which phones fall back to when LTE isn't available. T-Mobile does have 3G on 1900 Mhz in many, but not all, major Metropolitan areas.

SM-G900V doesn't support LTE band 4 or 1700 Mhz 3G, so in areas where those are available but band 4 LTE or 1900 Mhz 3g aren't SM-G900V would fall back to 2G. I can't say how often that will happen but SM-G900V typically isn't any cheaper than SM-G900T so why buy a less capable phone?

Youre right, a better capable phone is ideal. Looking on craigslist and found it for $275, most others are more expensive. But i guess i will just have to look harder for those specific ones you listed. Sounds like its definitely what i need for where im at. Thank you!

anybody know if metropcs's 4g only phones (Lg 70) will be able to get 4g where t mobile has reframed band 2 1900 mhz to be 4g lte.. or is it only going lte... without 4g?

i.e. will the $30 month deal.. give users only 2g data..even if phone supports band 2 for 3/4g ??? If that's the case then with only 1gb maybe they should of allowed lte phones esp.. if there's areas with only 2g speeds....

Question then.. does 4g on band 2 included when areas got 4g lte on band 2 1900 mhz??

Band 4 (1700) is T-Mobile's primary band for both LTE and HSPA+ fauxG. ReFARMing added HSPA+ on some band 2 (1900) towers in metropolitan areas. The L70 supports both band 2 and 4 so it should get HSPA+ wherever it's available.

Carriers periodically adjust the percentage of bandwidth allocated to various technologies (2, 3G/fauxG, LTE) in each cell. As demand for LTE increases more bandwidth will be allocated to it than 2G and 3G/HSPA+. It's a gradual process not a total switch from HSPA+ to LTE. If the network engineers do their job right non-LTE phones like the L70 should continue to get HSPA+ until HSPA+ gets shut down if it ever does.

T-Mobile has not announced any plans to shutdown HSPA+. It's possible that they will drop 2G first like AT&T has in some markets.

For a rough idea of HSPA+ availability, in March of 2014 T-Mobile announced they had deployed LTE to 210M POPs and had HSPA+ covering 230M POPs. http://newsroom.t-mobile.com/news/t-mobile-celebrates-1st-anniversary-of-lte-rollout-by-launching-major-network-upgrade-program.htm?icid=WMD_TM_CVRGQ32014_XRKOTQNOMVU745 Now they have LTE on 275M+ POPs, with no numbers announced recently for HSPA+. The T-Mobile CTO has also said in the past that they plan to keep 2G for a long time, much longer than AT&T and Verizon.

Based on the information you provided there's:No support for T-Mobile LTENo support for T-Mobile's main 1700 3G bandNo or limited support for AT&T's LTE. I can't tell whether 850 refers to AT&T's b5 or one of the three other bands that are in the 850 Mhz segment

In summary, it's not a good choice for use primarily in the US. It will be limited to 2G on much of T-Mobile's network and 3G on AT&T's

Most US GSM carrier phones seem to have only quad band UMTS coverage. With AT&T or T-Mobile, the only difference is the 900 vs 1700 UMTS bands. If you were going to go with one carrier's phone for use on the other's network or to travel with internationally, which do you think is better?

My guess is that for domestic purposes, an unlocked T-Mobile phone will work better on AT&T than vice-versa because of the lack of 3G/1700 band on an AT&T phone whereas a T-Mobile quad-band will include AT&T's main 850 & 1900 Mhz bands. But, I would think that the T-mobile phone might not be as international friendly as an unlocked AT&T phone which includes the UMTS 900 band, which seems to be the standard on most factory unlocked phones you might buy. Would that be right?

Thanks, so is it fair to say that if you're choosing between an AT&T UMTS 850/900/1900/2100 and T-Mobile UMTS 850/1700/1900/2100, for domestic purposes a T-Mobile phone will work as well on AT&T as the AT&T branded phone, but take the AT&T phone onto T-Mobile and you'll lose a lot of 3G coverage without that UTMS 1700, right? The only real benefit to the AT&T phone would be that it will give you 3G coverage on 900 Mhz in a handful of countries. Is that right?

I agree, although I'm not sure how much T-Mobile 3G coverage you would actually lose with the AT&T phone as T-Mobile seems to be in the process of moving most of their 3G from 1700 to 1900. Also, T-Mobile now has LTE almost everywhere they have 3G.

I have an AT&T Note 4 on PTel and I get LTE almost everywhere. I rarely see 3G and almost never 2G except outside urban areas.

And you're pretty sure that those times when you see 2G it's not because you don't have the 3G band on your phone? Guess it would be difficult to know unless you had a T-mobile phone in the same spot to compare it.

Thanks again - you're definitely the most knowledgeable person I've found on this.

Sprint's bands are listed in the post. The Samsung Galaxy S4 L720T is the Sprint version. Provided it meets Sprint's Financial Eligibility Critera (FEC) is can be activated on Sprint, Boost and Sprint MVNOs. For more about Sprint's FEC see: Sprint Partially Fixes the BYOSP Mess It Created

Hello dennis I purchased a sm-g900V for dirt cheap n I have family Mobile service I was wondering simce family mobile is on tmobile why when I put the sim card in it wont work says emergency calls only please help me

The phone needs to be in global mode to work on GSM networks. Go to settings/connections/more networks/mobile networks/network mode/ and change it to global. That should get calls and SMS working.

If even calls don't work there may be a reason why it was dirt cheap. It might be a phone that's blocked from all networks because it was reported lost or stolen or the previous owner didn't complete EIP or contract. Check it at Swappa | ESN / IMEI / MEID Check (Free).

If it passes Swapp's check it's likely that the SIM is bad, unactivated or not inserted the right way around or the phone is defective.

If callsdo work, to get data and MMS working, go to settings/connections/more networks/mobile networks/access point names, and create a new APN with the WFM values which are:

The iPhone 6S and 6S Plus. iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, Nexus 6, 5X and 6P and the 2015 Moto G Pure Edition support most of the bands used by all four US carriers. Check their specs on Phonescoop or the manufacture's sites to see if they also support LTE bands 1 and 8 and whatever bands the various Chinese operators use.

The brand new 2014 Nexus 6 is $300 on eBay and $350 on Amazon, The 2015 Moto X Pure Edition is $400 direct from Motorola .

I compared all the phones you mentioned, and in case it will help somebody else, the conclusion is pretty clear: unless you want to spend USD 600+, the Moto X Pure Edition is the 'clear' winner. No other phone supports as many LTE bands and it cost only USD 400 unlocked. It also have a memory card slot, which is getting more and more rare on new phones.

The Nexus phones do not support both LTE 8 and 1, which make them poor choices for good European coverage, and the iPhone 6's are much more expensive.

OP says: "No other phone supports as many LTE bands.." referring to Moto X.The iPhone 6S supports either 22 or 23 LTE bands, depending on which model you buy. No other smartphone supports more LTE bands.

This excellent reference is still prominent on your main page, and I refer to it often. If you were to update the content it would be worthwhile to edit the reference to 1700 (AWS) being the primary band for T Mobile UMTS (3G) data. TMo has been moving 3G service from AWS to its 1900 MHz PCS spectrum for a long time now so as to free-up spectrum for LTE.

Dennis my husband has Walmart family mobile services and there phones re horrible they told me I can bring my own phone in but it has to rehire this: It will work if it is a T-Mobile compatible or unlocked GSM phone that operates on the 850 MHz or 1900 MHz band. He not a technology kinda person he hates cell phone and technology lol but he needs a good phone for work. What the best Cell phone that works well with his carrier? I scared to buy one and then it not work on certain things like internet or camera or texts. Please help us.

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